Free Republic

The CIA can selectively divulge classified information to selected reporters in emails yet withhold that information from other journalists or members of the public when they seek the same information under the Freedom of Information Act, a federal judge in New York has ruled The decision appeared in the court record on Friday but became more widely disseminated Monday. The ruling comes amid vigorous national debate over leaks to the media and the use of anonymous sources in covering national security news, including an ongoing FBI investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Judge Colleen McMahon...

This is a disturbing case coming out of a federal court in New York. A freelance journalist named Adam Johnson had been seeking copies of CIA emails sent to certain newspaper reporters and, having been denied them, sued to have the material released. The emails were part of a batch of more than 500 documents which the agency made public, but some were heavily redacted. Johnson wanted to see the redacted ones since they had already been given to other members of the press. Amazingly, Judge Colleen McMahon (a Clinton appointee) ruled that the CIA was free to pick and...

A New York Times reporter will be subpoenaed to answer questions ahead of an upcoming trial of a former CIA officer accused of leaking classified information, though a Tuesday hearing indicated there is much confusion about what the journalist may be asked to reveal. Prosecutors say they will not ask James Risen if ex-CIA man Jeffrey Sterling was his anonymous source for part of the 2006 book “State Of War” that detailed a botched CIA effort to cripple Iran’s nuclear program. However, they do want to know if the two had a prior, on-the-record source relationship. Risen’s lawyer, Joel Kurtzberg,...

A former staffer for Bay State Sen. John F. Kerry has been charged with leaking the names of CIA operatives, including one who was involved in the interrogation of terror suspects held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and Kerry’s office.

A former CIA officer was arrested on Thursday on charges of illegally disclosing national defense information about Iran to a New York Times reporter who wrote a book. The U.S. Justice Department said Jeffrey Sterling, 43, was charged with six counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and one count of unlawfully keeping national defense information, mail fraud, unauthorized conveyance of government property and obstructing justice.

A friend notes that The New York Sun article today about the dropping of FBI investigations into intelligence leaks (mentioned in an earlier blog) contains lots of interesting news. (emphasis supplied) A CIA spokeswoman, Michele Neff, flatly denied that her agency has resisted the FBI's efforts to hunt down leakers. "That's simply not the case," she said yesterday. "Why would we not want to get to the bottom of the leaks? The Office of General Counsel works closely with the Department of Justice on investigations regarding unauthorized disclosures."

Journalists may testify in CIA leak case By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 2, 7:41 AM ET Some journalists who made careers out of questioning government officials and bearing witness to history may soon find themselves answering questions from prosecutors as key witnesses in the CIA leak case. Ten or more reporters from some of the most prominent news organizations could be called to testify in the perjury and obstruction case of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. It's rare enough for reporters to become witnesses. But the Libby case is even more unusual because journalists...

WASHINGTON - The judge in the CIA leak case ruled Thursday that if Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald feels that admitting certain classified documents at the upcoming trial of I Lewis "Scooter" Libby can jeopardize national security, Fitzgerald can then move to dismiss the perjury charges against Libby. Judge Reggie Walton cannot automatically allow classified materials to be admitted at trial. He first must go through a series of closed hearings under CIPA regulations. CIPA, the Classified Information Procedures Act, protects and restricts the discovery of classified information in a way that does not impair the defendant's right to a fair...

» Print this article It’s Fish or Cut Bait Time, Mr. Attorney General June 24th, 2006 In March, Gabriel Schoenfeld wrote a brilliant piece in Commentary in which he argued that the New York Times revelations about the NSA program warranted prosecution under Section 798 of Title 18, the so-called Comint statute. In the article he details the history and language of the Act and its 1950 amendment and argues that the language is unambiguous and certainly covers the paper’s disclosures of the NSA program, which substantially harmed our counter terrorism activities.

WASHINGTON, April 25 — The Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday defended the firing of Mary O. McCarthy, the veteran officer who was dismissed last week, and challenged her lawyer's statements that Ms. McCarthy never provided classified information to the news media. But intelligence officials would not say whether they believed that Ms. McCarthy had been a source for a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles in The Washington Post about secret C.I.A. detention centers abroad. Media accounts have linked Ms. McCarthy's firing to the articles, but the C.I.A. has never explicitly drawn such a connection (snip) A C.I.A. spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise...

A traitor in the midst By Cal Thomas Apr 25, 2006 What do you call someone who, in violation of her oath, reveals government secrets to a reporter, who then prints them and exposes a clandestine operation designed to get information from suspected terrorists that could save American lives? Here is what one dictionary says about that word: "One who betrays another's trust or is false to an obligation or duty." The word so defined is traitor. The Central Intelligence Agency fired an intelligence officer after determining she leaked classified information to a Washington Post reporter about secret overseas prisons...

More resources and links for research. If you have any other updated links, post them in the comments. I am trying to update daily. http://chickenhawkexpress.blogspot.com/2006/04/leakers-and-liars-more-links-to.html

On the popular Fox network television series 24, the first half of the long and violent day of covert operative Jack Bauer has been spent hunting down the Chechen terrorists who where trying to unleash nerve gas on Los Angeles. The terrorists had earlier tried to assassinate the Russian president during his meeting with U.S. President Charles Logan in Los Angels to formalize a new antiterrorism alliance. Then it was revealed, in a story line that has taken many twists and turns, that President Logan is the real villain behind the day's events. So Bauer is now trying to foment...

Another Day, Another Embarrassing Intelligence-Related Correction Posted by: Clay Waters 4/14/2006 11:59:09 AM After correcting itself on the Lewis Libby leak yesterday, the Times on Friday corrects another Bush-related intelligence story by reporter Eric Lichtblau that brought much criticism from conservative bloggers like PowerLine. This is what Lichtblau falsely claimed March 29: “In a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the secretive court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, several former judges who served on the panel also voiced skepticism at a Senate hearing about the president's constitutional authority to order wiretapping on Americans without a court order.”...

Breaking – Proven reliable sources tell me that in tomorrow morning's edition of the NYT, the leftist paper will reveal that DOD has embedded military rapid reaction teams at a number of US embassies abroad. The Times is again giving our enemies hard intel they need to be more effective on the worldwide terrorism battlefield. The concept was very simple; When we got intel that known terrs were operating in a specific area, the US team already in place would be able to snatch them quickly. Because the team is already there, entry problems would be eliminated and reaction time...

CIA director Porter Goss is redoubling efforts to prevent agents from divulging the spy agency's secrets to the media, and also plans to clamp down on former spies publishing books about their covert careers, Time magazine has reported. Citing an anonymous former senior Central Intelligence Agency official, Time, in a report to hit newsstands this week, said on its website that CIA officials told employees during a meeting last week that leaking had gotten out of control and needed to stop. The reported added that a new clampdown on leakers had been launched, supported by a team of "mostly retired"...

VIENNA: The CIA, using a double-agent Russian scientist, may have handed a blueprint for a nuclear bomb to Iran. State of War by James Risen, the New York Times reporter who exposed the Bush administration's controversial domestic spying operation, claims the plans contained fatal flaws designed to derail Tehran's nuclear drive. But the deliberate errors were so rudimentary they would have been easily fixed by sophisticated Russian nuclear scientists, the book said. The operation, which took place during the Clinton administration in early 2000, was codenamed Operation Merlin and "may have been one of the most reckless operations in...

NEW YORK - The National Security Agency has conducted much broader surveillance of e-mails and phone calls — without court orders — than the Bush administration has acknowledged, The New York Times reported on its Web site. The NSA, with help from American telecommunications companies, obtained access to streams of domestic and international communications, said the Times in the report late Friday, citing unidentified current and former government officials.

US monitored Muslim sites for radiation: report 5 minutes ago U.S. officials have secretly monitored radiation levels at Muslim sites, including mosques and private homes, since September 11, 2001 as part of a top secret program searching for nuclear bombs, U.S. News and World Report said on Friday. The news magazine said in its online edition that the far-reaching program covered more than a hundred sites in the Washington, D.C., area and at least five other cities. "In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were...

A chorus of peepings emanating from the interior of the fever swamps of the Left may be heard tonight promising that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald really will deliver the Xmas present found heading the list in every liberal’s letter to Santa: a grand jury indictment of Karl Rove for obstruction of justice in L’Affaire Plame.